


Open Arms and Open Heart

by skellingfish



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Theater AU, Thiefshipping, Toast of Tardiness, id take a bullet for odion, idk if this counts as slow burn but it might be slow, marik is just a theater kid fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 08:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15433191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skellingfish/pseuds/skellingfish
Summary: Alt Title: My Fair PrinceIn which Marik is cast as the lead in the school play and must learn to be the hero for a change.





	Open Arms and Open Heart

Monday, October 5

By the time Marik had styled his hair that morning, he had just enough time to shove a buttered piece of bread into his mouth before he left. Ishizu had given him a scathing look over her cup of black coffee.

“You know when I was in high school, I never--”

“I don’t have time for it today!” said Marik, the bread almost falling out of his mouth, and bolted out the door to sloppily unchain his bicycle. He kept one hand on the handlebars, the other stuffing the rest of his breakfast into his mouth as he peddled frantically towards Bakura’s house.

“Why are you in such a rush?” Bakura asked as Marik pulled up, panting slightly. “School doesn’t start for another half hour.”

“Don’t tell me you forgot, not after we spent all that time practicing,” Marik huffed, leaning his weight on one leg until Bakura had climbed on behind him.

“It doesn’t have to do with that bloody school play, does it? Are they posting the roles today?”

“That’s it. I could barely sleep last night. I have such a good feeling about what I got.”

 

 

It was as if the heavens had sent down a beam of light to illuminate the slip of paper pinned to the board. This was the moment Marik had been waiting for. Everything had to be perfect. He straightened his school uniform, checked his hair in the reflection of his phone, and walked up the paper.

Marik cast greedy eyes over the casting list. It started out predictably enough, with Joey Wheeler as the lovable sidekick, Ryou as cheerful support, Tea Gardner as a quirky female love interest, and Yugi Muto as… _the villian_?

“What?” Marik said aloud, squinting at the comic sans.

“Something wrong?” asked Bakura.

“Yugi got my role!” Marik snapped. “I wanted to play the villain. All those lines we rehearsed and it goes to _him_? I mean look at the kid he’s not even five feet tall! This must be a mistake.”

“Let me see,” Bakura said, pushing Marik out of the way to get a better view. He scanned the page and stepped back. “No, it says Yugi alright. But why would they cast him?”

“Hey, Marik!”

The hairs on the back of Marik’s neck rose at the sound of Yugi’s voice. He whirled around, narrowing his eyes.

“What do _you_ want?”

“I wanted to say congratulations,” said Yugi, seemingly oblivious to Marik’s very obvious hostility. “You’ve seen the casting, right?”

“What? Why are you congratulating me?” he asked. “You got the best part.”

“Didn’t you see?” Yugi tapped the paper. “You got the leading role.”

For a moment Marik looked blankly at him. Then he turned back to the paper and finished reading it.

_Male Lead: Marik Ishtar_

 

* * *

 

Thursday, October 15

“I have no idea how to act a leading role,” Marik whined. They were eating lunch which Bakura had packed that morning, since Marik was notoriously late and usually didn’t have time to make his own.

Bakura shrugged. “I don’t know. Make people like you I guess.”

“It’s been going so badly though. Kaiba’s been picking on me every chance he gets. I just wish gotten Yugi’s part.”

Shoving the rest of a sandwich into his mouth, Bakura nodded. “Why do you want the villain part so badly anyway?”

“Because I’m _always_ the villain, Bakura. I capture the audience through my somber monologues and tragic downfall. It’s my thing.”

“Hamlet had both those things too and he was considered a hero,”

Marik didn’t answer that. “It’s just different,” he said instead, picking at the crust of his sandwich.

“Maybe different is good.”

“Of course different is good!” Marik whined. “I know I’ve got to grow as an actor but why does it have to be so damn hard with Kaiba on my back all the time?”

“He probably just expects a lot of you because he’s a perfectionist. He’s even more of a stubborn brat than you are.”

“Hey!”

“Wasn’t Ishizu into theater in high school? Can’t you ask her for tips?”

“As if I’d stoop to so low. I’m not that desperate,” said Marik haughtily.

 

* * *

 

Saturday, October 17

“Fair p-prince, I bestow up-upon you this kiss of, um, of my true love?” Odion squinted at the page. “Sorry Marik, my glasses are somewhere downstairs.”

“Odion for the love of God could you at least _try_ to sound convincing.”

“I just don’t think I’m cut out for being a princess,” he said. “Can’t we switch roles or something?”

“But then how would I practice my lines?” Marik said.

“Good point. Okay, let me try again,” He cleared his throat. “F-fair prince, I bestow upon y-you this--”

“It’s okay, don’t worry. I’ll find someone else to practice with,” Marik said. “Thanks for helping though.”

 

 

“Oh you’re in the school play? I’m surprised you managed to land yourself the leading role considering you’re late for everything,” Ishizu said. “I remember when we did this play when I was a sophomore. I was so happy when the made _me_ the female lead. I mean I could totally see it coming, but still I--”

“Ishizu, stop making this about you, I’m supposed to be the one practicing.”

“Okay let’s start then,” she said, waving away the script he offered her. “Don’t worry, I still remember all my lines. Should we pick up with ‘fair prince’? That seems like a good place to start.”

Marik rolled his eyes. “Fine. We can start there.”

“Right.”

Ishizu straightened her back, opened her eyes a little wider, and somehow softened her expression. When she spoke, her voice quivered with emotion.

“Fair prince, I bestow upon you this kiss of my true love.”

Marik blinked in surprise. It was almost as if she’d become a completely different person. He must have waited a beat too long to respond because she snapped back to her normal self to prompt him the line.

“And I accept it with open arms and an open heart.”

“Yes Ishizu, I know! Jeez, give me a minute before you start spitting _my_ lines at me too, won’t you?”

“I was only trying to help. Your audience isn’t just going to sit and wait while you wrack your brain.”

Marik snatched his script up from the ground and stood. “You know what? I’m just going to go to Bakura’s. I’ve had enough of this.”

 

 

Bakura seemed a little more fidgety than usual when the two of them practiced their lines. It wasn’t something they hadn’t done before. To prepare for the audition they’d worked most of the weekend getting Marik ready.

“What’s going on Bakura?” Marik asked finally. “You’re stumbling over everything.”

Bakura sighed. “I’m fine, it’s nothing. Let’s just keep going.”

“But you’ve never acted this way before now. Why are you being so weird about this? It’s just play practice.”

“I said it’s nothing!” he turned his head away sharply, looking back down towards the script. “Do you want to practice or what?”

Marik waited a beat. “Okay, go ahead.”

Bakura pulled the paper up so it covered most of his face. Around the edges Marik could see his skin was pink. “Fair prince, I bestow upon you this kiss of my true love.”

Something in Marik stirred when he heard Bakura say it. Suddenly, his eyes felt very drawn to the floor. At that moment it would have taken all his willpower to look up and meet his friends gaze. Then Bakura tossed the script aside and frowned.

“It just feels so unnatural, you know? I’d never say these things to you. I’d never call you my fair prince.”

Marik forced a laugh. “Right. I’m no prince Bakura, we both know I’m more cut out to be a villain anyway.”

Bakura’s face softened. “That’s not what I meant. Maybe it’s just that I’m not cut out to be a princess.”

 


End file.
